Report shows special interests dominated Wis. Supreme Court race

BY SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press

Wednesday, April 9, 2008 4:01 PM CDT

MADISON — More than $3.6 million was spent on television advertising during the Wisconsin Supreme Court race won by Michael Gableman, an analysis released Wednesday showed.

Total spending on the race was actually higher. When all television markets are examined, as well as direct mail and other expenses, the total cost of the race will top $6 million, said Mike McCabe, executive director of the government watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

That would break the record set last year for the most spent on a state Supreme Court race at $5.8 million.

Gableman defeated Justice Louis Butler by 51 percent to 49 percent in this year's race, which was criticized by both the candidates and independent observers as costly and nasty.

"It's not that they ran a lot of ads, it's that they ran trashy ads," McCabe said.

The race has renewed calls for reforms in how Supreme Court justices are selected in Wisconsin.

The study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law looked only at television spending in the state's top five markets.

It found that 89 percent came from outside interest groups and not Gableman or Butler. Those groups spent more than $3.1 million compared with just over $400,000 by the candidates. Pro-Gableman groups spent 59 percent compared to about 41 percent by pro-Butler groups.

The study identified the largest spender as the pro-Gableman Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business group. It spent $1.2 million, followed by $1.1 million spent by the pro-Butler Greater Wisconsin Committee, a liberal special interest group.

The third and fourth highest spenders were also pro-Gableman: Wisconsin Club for Growth at $443,139 and the Coalition for America's Families at $381,881.

The candidates' spending won't be known until July when reports are filed covering the entire campaign. But the most recent filings, which went through March 17, showed that they had raised about $1 million combined.

McCabe said he expects they will have spent about $1.5 million, compared to more than $4.5 million by outside groups.

Most of the third party group spending came in the final days of the race. In the last nine days, those groups spent $1.5 million on TV ads, according to the study.

In last year's Supreme Court race, the two candidates spent about $2.6 million and third party groups spent about $3.1 million

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